An Unnatural History of Religions

Leonardo Ambasciano’s An Unnatural History of Religions: Academia, Post-Truth and the Quest for Scientific Knowledge presents a critical discussion of what the author believes to be the troubling persistence of non-natural research programs in the academic study of religion. The discussion follows the trajectory of the discipline over the past two hundred years, identifying the promising inauguration of the science of religion in the nineteenth century only to document how, in the twentieth century, it turned away from such origins. Now, in the twenty-first century, Ambasciano believes there is yet a glimmer of hope for those who, like him, wish to establish an exhaustively scientific study of religion. For this reason, “This is not a neutral academic volume. This is a book with an agenda, and a strong one” (xvii). Although some may find unpalatable his tone, and perhaps unpersuasive his critical evaluations and conclusions, Ambasciano’s assessment is, I believe, worthy of consideration: “Despite centuries of scientific research, the main academic discipline dedicated to the historical study of religion has been—and still is—so blindly devoted to an apologetic study of its research subject” (xi).

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